6 Achieving children
Children and young people should have access to positive learning environments and opportunities to develop their skills, confidence and self-esteem to the fullest potential. (Vision for children 2005)
The teachers helped me think about what I needed to do. (Ross)
Education is a big thing for me. It helps when you're out there in the big wide world. I think qualifications do play a big part in where you want to go. (Denise)
The education of looked after children and young people
167. The majority of looked after children attend ordinary schools, the remainder go to special schools 7 or small day units. An HMIE report, Improving Scottish Education, noted that, " some of the most vulnerable and challenging pupils in Scotland attend these schools" (2006b:46). Looked after children and young people can face additional barriers to achieving success in education. Many do well in school but educational outcomes for looked after children remain poor in comparison with other children.
168. In 1999, Scottish Ministers set a target that all young people leaving local authority care should have attained standard grades in English and Mathematics but progress has been slow. Improving Scottish Education ( HMIE 2006b) noted that the performance of the lowest 20% of pupils, as measured against national levels and examinations, has remained static.
Around 60% of looked after, and looked after and accommodated, young people who are 16 to 17 have gained no qualifications at SCQF level 3 or above. Some of these young people gain awards in courses at colleges of further education, through extended work experience, and in activities accredited by voluntary organisations. Few of these awards are sufficiently recognised in the current range of school and national measures of success (2006b:38).
169. Children in residential special schools, including looked after children, still have a shorter school week than mainstream schools and, despite some exceptions, inspection has noted significant weaknesses in the quality of educational provision overall ( HMIE 2004). Some schools failed to give pupils enough study time to achieve formal qualifications. Whilst in residential special schools which provide solely for pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties ( SEBD), pupils' successes in personal and social development can be impressive.
These schools help pupils overcome many barriers to their learning … where schools have been successful; they have transformed vulnerable and challenging young people into young adults who are aware of the need to become responsible citizens ( HMIE 2006b:48).
170. However, the HMIE report noted weaknesses in pupils' attainment in English in a third of day special schools, and in Mathematics in a quarter of special schools. The picture is poorer still in residential and day special schools which cater exclusively for pupils with SEBD. Important weaknesses are present in pupil's attainment in English language and mathematics in most of these schools. Weaknesses in attainment can be attributed, in part, to a number of factors. The length of the school week is shorter than in mainstream schools; pupils have often experienced major interruptions to learning before being placed in a special school; some schools experience difficulty in attracting and retaining teachers in subject specialism; and on some occasions pupils' behavioural difficulties mask undiagnosed learning difficulties ( HMIE 2006b).
171. The report Learning with Care ( HMIE and SWSI 2001) set out the educational disadvantages of looked after children and what could be done to help them to achieve their potential. Although published five years ago it is still relevant and important today, and below we discuss the central themes. Looked after children and young people were consulted and actively involved in the preparation of the report. It makes nine recommendations about improving the educational outcomes for looked after children. It emphasised the importance of schools, social workers and carers working together to have a shared understanding of the importance of education for improving the life chances of children and young people.
172. The report ( HMIE and SWSI 2001) identified four key areas in which looked after young people can have difficulties in education. These are getting to school, coping there, being helped to learn and progressing to education beyond school.
i. Getting through the school gates listed the key factors which can lead to non attendance and strategies which young people have found helpful in getting them back into school.
ii. Settling in at school explained the bullying and discrimination, difficult relationships and distress at school which can lead to behaviour which results in the child or young person being suspended or excluded. Key factors which prevented young people from settling in school were listed together with strategies which they have found helpful in keeping them in school. These include training and support for teachers in managing challenging behaviour and in diversity and discrimination, clear guidance on the confidentiality of young peoples' personal lives, counselling and support for the young people.
iii. Ready to learn. In this section, the report recognised that even when looked after children attend regularly they still face barriers both within and outwith the school. These included children and young people lacking confidence and doubting the value of education. Young people described some residential care homes as being too distracting to allow serious study.
iv. Fulfilling potential noted that achievement for looked after young people was sometimes limited by a mindset which linked leaving school at age 16 with timing of moving into independent living. Progress to further or higher education was restricted as many looked after young people left school feeling rejected. Those who did progress on to further education lacked emotional and financial support to keep up their studies. The strategies young people have found helpful included early help with educational difficulties, incentives and support from foster carers and residential care staff to complete homework. Encouragement to go on to further education could be provided by a much stronger focus on education at children's reviews together with ongoing practical support about how to apply.
173. A number of factors can contribute to looked after children becoming effective learners. These are the learning environment; family and home circumstances; health; and social and environmental factors. Each is discussed below.
The learning environment
174. Children's experiences at school have deep and long lasting effects on their social and educational development (Gilligan 1998). Some of the contributors to Celebrating success (Happer et al. 2006) described school as a place of refuge where they could escape from difficulties at home. Some told us about how they were helped by sympathetic responses from staff at school.
My school is really, really nice because they [the staff] understand me. (Alison)
Young people also told us about the differences that particular teachers could make to their lives.
She said to me "It's only you that can change your future" and it sort of hit me, yeah that's true. And it changed things somehow and I've never forgotten it. (Carrie)
175. The Standards in Scotland's Schools Act 2000 placed a legislative duty on education authorities to " secure the development of the personality, talents and mental and physical abilities of the child or young person to their fullest potential". To achieve this end, the Scottish Executive set out a vision for all Scotland's children. The vision requires agencies and services to collaborate in information sharing, joint planning and effective co-ordinated delivery. It brings together local authorities, police forces, NHS boards and other local partners in planning services for children and families at a local level. The proposals in getting it right for every child (Scottish Executive 2005d) promote improved assessment and information sharing. An integrated system of inspection of services for children will support improvements across children's services and evaluate the impact of the strategy. These inspections will begin in 2008.
176. Since the Standards in Scotland's Schools 2000 Act, the Scottish Executive has also been more explicit about expectations for the education system. Five national priorities were agreed, relating to achievement and attainment; a framework for learning; inclusion and equality; values and citizenship; and learning for life. The Scottish Executive has also provided substantial increases in funding to tackle weaknesses in provision. The policy framework has been set by Life Through Learning:Learning Through Life (2003e), Ambitious, Excellent Schools (2004g) and Determined to Succeed (2004h).
177. The integrated community schools initiatives have strengthened links between services including social work and health partners.
In one area, four secondary school clusters were designated as integrated community schools, and funding has been used to ensure that social workers, careers officers and part-time mental health counsellors were available to all secondary schools. Positive outcomes have included improved opportunities for young people leaving school, a reduction in the total number of exclusions from these schools and the very encouraging involvement of the schools in health promotion activities.
Learning with Care ( HMIE and SWSI 2001) found that looked after children who are excluded from school can be without any education for weeks or months. Alternative arrangements, such as home tutoring or placement in supported education units, often fall far short of full-time schooling. 13% of looked after and accommodated children were excluded in the year 2003-04 yet they are only 1% of all children who attend school.
178.Learning with Care recommended that all schools should have a designated teacher with special responsibility for looked after children. The purpose was to make sure that children's special needs and circumstances are met and understood and also to make sure that a teacher could attend reviews and children's hearings so that relevant information could be shared.
One local authority in the west of Scotland set up a multi-agency group to support looked after and accommodated children and other vulnerable children. All schools had a designated teacher who had received multi -disciplinary training courses on improving educational outcomes for looked after children. As a result, the percentage of looked after and accommodated children leaving care who attained SCQF level 3 in English and Maths was higher than the national average.
179. In this review we found a mixed picture, whilst most schools had identified someone, not all designated teachers were clear about their role and function. Many looked after children and young people feel that they can be singled out and made conspicuous to their peers by their status. Whilst many may welcome teachers coming to reviews and hearings, others may be embarrassed by their attendance and feel their privacy has been breached. Designated teachers may benefit from training in the rights and confidentiality issues for looked after and looked after and accommodated children and young people.
180. The Scottish Executive's leadership agenda for schools set out in ambitious, excellent schools: leadership - a discussion paper (2005b) has identified the development of good leaders and managers in integrated children's services as a priority. The task of ensuring that all looked after children have the appropriate educational opportunities that they need, should be given urgent priority by senior education personnel within local authorities across the country, working together with social work services.
181. Statistics which measure looked after children's educational attainment do not fully capture their achievements. The Scottish Executive is working with partners to find additional measures of success. At the moment the educational outcomes for looked after children are reported only in social work statistics, not in national education statistics. In order to demonstrate that meeting the needs of looked after children is the concern of local authority as a whole we think it would be helpful if those outcomes were reported in national education statistics.
182.Learning with Care ( HMIE and SWSI 2001) identified the need for a clearer focus on looked after children's education and outcomes. As a result, local authorities and the Scottish Executive have invested in new developments to tackle the deficiencies in planning and schooling for children looked after away from home. In 2002, the Scottish Executive allocated additional monies to local authorities to make sure that every looked after child, including those looked after at home, had access to books, computers and other IT equipment, learning support and homework materials. More than 11,000 children received between £500 and £2500 worth of equipment or support. In October 2004, the Scottish Executive allocated a further £6 million to improve outcomes for children and young people.
183. Educational provision which targets all children and young people who are slow learners, or who have been disadvantaged educationally, can help looked after children in a way which does not single them out. HMIE has a key role in raising standards in Scotland's schools for all children and young people. Together with the Care Commission, HMIE is undertaking an evaluation of the integrated inspection process for early education and child care and has implemented a new inspection model for residential special schools. There is a range of strategies in place which aim to help pupils who are not attaining to their full potential, including some looked after children. These include A Curriculum for Excellence (Scottish Executive 2004i), Ambitious, Excellent Schools (Scottish Executive 2004g), Determined to Succeed (Scottish Executive 2004h) and A Curriculum for Excellence: the review of guidance and curriculum flexibility (Scottish Executive 2006d). In addition HMIE provides support and guidance through good practice guides and their inspection processes.
184. The Executive has set a target to ensure that by 2007 over 50% of all looked after young people leaving care will have entered education, employment or training. In 2006, the Scottish Executive set up a short life-working group chaired by the Minister for education and young people to consider how to improve educational outcomes for looked after children. Scottish Ministers will soon publish a strategy to reduce the proportion of young people not in education, employment or training. It will build on the analysis and recommendations put forward in the 2005 report of NEET workstream.
Family circumstances
185. We found that when adults had high expectations of the children whom they looked after, this motivated the children and young people to achieve success, sometimes for the first time:
You don't really have high opinions of yourself and stuff like that and when somebody else points it out to you, shows confidence in you, then you do sort of follow it and say 'this is my goal, this is what I'll do. (Mark)
Young people were helped to identify their goals and then to work, step by step, towards achieving them:
If I want my child to be good at football, I can't just take him along to football coaching once or twice. I have to buy him boots and a football strip and shin pads. I have to make sure he gets to every coaching session. I have to play football with him. I have to go to his matches and cheer him on. I have to praise him as he gets better and help him grow in confidence. It's a long-term commitment. (Senior programme director Columba 1400)
186. Looked after children and young people who live at home or with kinship carers, may have family circumstances which can affect their performance in school. They may be worried about who is caring for their parent when they are at school. Keeping it quiet (Maguire 2005) a study of children and families affected by parental drug misuse, found that parents were concerned about the impact of their drug misuse on their children's education. Their drug habits stopped them from helping their children with their homework, in some cases resulting in children in their family being late, or not attending, school.
A local authority employed two teachers as well as adult volunteers who made links with and then visited children's homes regularly to help with homework. As a result, the children's homework improved along with relationships between the volunteers and some of the children and young people.
187. For children and young people in foster care, school was much more than a route to academic success. As Sinclair (2005:97) found, it was a place...
where they must cope with the potential stigma of being in care, with the fact that their surname was not the same as that of their carers or the fact that could be conveyed to school in unusual ways, e.g. by taxis.
Sinclair (2005) also noted that not all social workers and foster carers were committed to education. Where foster carers were proactive in trying to get the best education for their foster child there could be conflict with social workers about who should attend meetings and be responsible for liaising with the school. In the course of this review we heard of one example of poor communication when the parent of a nine year old boy in foster care committed suicide. When the boy returned to school after the funeral, the foster carers believed the social worker had told the school and the social worker thought the foster carers had told the school. The teacher found out what had happened when the boy wrote in his school 'diary' that his father had died. Care planning for looked after children in foster care should clarify who is taking responsibility for keeping in contact with the school and helping the child with their education.
A local authority appointed an education guidance worker to help foster carers and residential child care staff to develop their skills in helping children and young people. The worker offers a rolling programme of workshops in literacy, numeracy, science and IT which three quarters of all local carers attended. The worker also offers advice on career pathways and access to further and higher education.
188.Learning with Care ( HMIE and SWSI 2001) found that children and young people who lived in residential homes experienced similar problems about communication and role clarity in schools. In addition, children lacked encouragement to complete homework or take part in out of school activities. Responses from young people who took part included accounts of disruptive environments in residential homes and how they affected the aspirations and expectations of the young people who lived there.
189. In this review we found evidence that outcomes improved if looked after children had clear plans which explicitly identified goals, tasks, and targets and allocated areas of responsibility for implementing them. The most successful plans were found when social workers and carers worked with young people to help achieve the goals that they had identified together. Fraser and Ross both explained to us the importance of having goals and the additional support to achieve them.
My social workers and foster carers and school planned for me to go to university from when I was in first year at school. We talked about it at every review meeting and they helped me think about what I needed to do to get there. (Fraser)
My social worker organised tutoring for me in maths and chemistry. This helped me get better grades and will in turn help me realise my ambition of joining the RAF. (Ross)
Health or disability
190. The health of looked after children is discussed in chapter 4. Here we refer briefly to developments in education which can support them and meet their individual needs. In November 2005, the Scottish Executive introduced new arrangements through the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 which will give additional support for learning to all children who need extra help by introducing co-ordinated support plans. The plan will include:
- the complex or multiple factors which given rise to the additional support needs for children and young people
- the educational objectives
- the additional support required by the child or young person and the persons who will provide the support.
191. Many looked after children will benefit from these arrangements for additional support which will require schools and education departments, social work, the voluntary sector and NHS services to work closely together. Shared training sessions for these groups of staff might help. The Act places a clear duty on local authorities to make adequate and effective provision for each individual child's additional support needs, which includes looked after children. The Act provides for an appeal process in the event of a parent considering that their child's needs have not been met which may include the involvement of a supporter or advocate. For a small number of looked after children, where parental responsibility has been transferred to the local authority, the involvement of an independent advocate to support the child may be helpful.
Social or emotional factors
192. This review, and other studies, e.g. Sinclair (2005) and McGuire (2005), found that bullying and harassment as a result of being in care is the frequent experience of looked after children and young people. For some young people, school can be a welcome respite from their home or care placement. For others, feeling different and being picked on by other children can compound their misery and affect their abilities to learn. McGuire's study found that young people of drug misusing parents reported bullying by their peers. Those who were not bullied had various strategies which included not talking about their parents, and some were anxious not to be singled out for sympathy if their parents' drug use was known.
193. Aspects of the school curriculum can also unintentionally create difficulties for looked after children, for example discussions in personal and social development about families and relationships. Careful care planning and effective joint working between carers and teachers can help children and young people to overcome problems which may arise for them in school. Missing out ( HMIE 2006a) found that effective schools made well-judged use of curriculum flexibility to enhance the achievement of low attaining pupils. Schools that helped them used " curriculum flexibility and personalised, and less linear, pathways to progress" (2006a:5).
194.Missing out recommends that, in order to identify pupils who are affected by any or all of the factors we have been discussing, schools should assess the risks facing each pupil and how best to address their personal needs.
Schools cannot provide all the support themselves. This is recognised by the duties placed on other agencies to work in partnership with schools in supporting those pupils who need it in order to raise their levels of achievement. Schools need to be more proactive in seeking and expecting support. In the case of secondary schools, staff must also ensure that, as new approaches are explored and adopted in pupil's support and guidance, these approaches are targeted at tracking pupil's progress and reducing barriers to learning ( HMIE 2006a:3).
A good practice guide about what is currently working in schools to support children and young people who are looked after, including those who are looked after and accommodated, might be helpful.
Black and minority ethnic children
195. A research study on minority ethnic pupils' experiences of school in Scotland ( HMIE 2005) found that many minority ethnic pupils and parents experienced racism on a regular basis but their teachers tended to underestimate the problem.
Supporting achievement for young people leaving care
196. Young people going on to further and higher education is no longer the exception, but is part of our growing culture of developing the skills of every young Scot. Going to university is the norm for half of all young Scots. It should be the norm for a similar percentage of young people leaving care. We found that the level of awareness about the help that could be provided to support looked after children through further and higher education varied across the country. Everyone who has a role in supporting looked after young people should know how to get financial support to help them meet their goals. A renewal.net study (2006) found that support for young people leaving care was vital, both in practical and financial terms.
Examples of initiatives included provision of extra support for care leavers in education including additional support for literacy and numeracy, computer rooms or the loan of a laptop for young people at university and awards ceremonies to celebrate young people's achievements (2006:7).
197. Local authorities have powers to provide money to enable young people to go to college or university, provided they do so before the age of 21. We found some local authorities continuing to support young people well into their 20's. However this is a power, not a duty, and looked after young people are not entitled to financial support to help them continue their education or to get established in employment. One local authority told us that in conjunction with the training and employment unit, it was planning to provide supported, mentored employment opportunities for care leavers within the council's own departments.
What we can do to help children and young people achieve.
i. Be aware that looked after children and young people are very likely to do less well in education. Make sure they get every chance to do well in school.
ii. Help looked after children and young people with their homework. Some authorities have education workers who offer workshops on homework subjects for carers.
iii. Help children and young people do better in school by setting targets for improving performance and by providing additional support for learning and, where necessary, funding extra equipment.
iv. Identify the particular problems disabled and BME looked after children may face and be prepared to take action.
v. Make sure all looked after children and young people receive a comprehensive and integrated assessment of their needs, which identifies any learning difficulties and puts in place appropriate help for them.
vi. Involve looked after children in developing their personal learning plan.
vii. Make sure that all relevant staff are trained to know how to diffuse difficult situations and provide a safe area for the young person to let them withdraw from stressful situations.
viii. Provide specific help to young people leaving care in choosing a career or on further/higher education.
ix. Know what resources are open to young people leaving care and how to obtain them.
x. Support young people leaving care who want and are able to go onto higher/further education.
Key issues:
- demonstrating that meeting the needs of looked after children is the concern of the local authority as a whole
- developing incentives to recruit and retain teachers with qualifications in subject specialism to work in day and residential special schools for pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties ( SEBD)
- supporting and developing the role of LAC designated teachers
- reporting on the ethnicity of looked after children and young people within the education system and developing teachers' skills in tackling racism
- identifying what is currently working within schools in Scotland to support looked after children and looked after and accommodated children
- developing a shared understanding between teachers, social workers and health professionals of each others roles in relation to looked after children and young people.
Further reading and websites
Renewal. net (2006) Solving the problem - educating children in public carewww.renewal.net
Jackson, S. Ajayi, S. and Quigley, M. (2005) Going to University from Care Institute of Education, University of London, London
HMIE (2005) How good is our school? Promoting Race Equality Published in March 2005 with an audit guide for schools
Learning with Care (2003) training materials for carers, social workers and teachers Available from SIRCC
HMIE (2005) Residential Care and Education: Improving Practice in Residential Special Schools in Scotland (with the Care Commission)www.buttletrust.org/research/bydegrees_-_from_care_to_university/
Scottish Executive (2001) Learning with Care. Edinburgh: Scottish Executive
Scottish Executive (2005) Employability Framework for Scotland: Report on the NEET workstream.
Who Cares? Scotland (2005) A Different Class? Educational Attainment - the views and experiences of looked after young people
www.thewhocarestrust.org.uk/publications has a range of information on many topics, including inter-agency working, stability, literacy, and details of nationwide programmes